Below-average, average, and above-average readers engage different and similar brain regions while reading

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 27 children (14 girls, 13 boys) who varied in their reading skill levels. Both behavior performance measures recorded during the ERP word classification task and the ERP responses themselves discriminated between children with above-average, average, and below-average reading skills. ERP amplitudes and peak latencies decreased as reading skills increased. Furthermore, hemisphere differences increased with higher reading skill levels. Sex differences were also related to ERP amplitude variations across the scalp. However, ERPs recorded from boys and girls did not differ as a function of differences in the children's reading levels.     

A cross-lag analysis of longitudinal associations between preschool teachers’ instructional support identification skills and observed behavior

The present study examined the pattern of association(s) over time between (a) knowledge of and observational skills in identifying teacher–child interactions, and (b) observed behavior in the domain of instructional interaction for 405 preschool teachers enrolled in a professional development study. Teacher's knowledge/observational skills and observed instructional support behaviors with children were assessed in the fall and spring over a two-year period. During this time, the teachers were also randomized into a college course focused on interactions, then re-randomized into a coaching intervention, also focused on instructional interaction. Cross-lagged analyses suggest that prior observed behavior was the stronger predictor of change in both knowledge/observation skills and in later observed behavior, and that both the course and the coaching interventions contributed to improvements in teachers observed instructional support behavior. Mediational analyses of the course effects indicated longer-term impact on observed instructional behavior were through immediate impacts on those same behaviors, whereas long-term impacts on knowledge were through immediate impacts on both observed instructional behavior and knowledge. The results have implications for the design, delivery, and focus of professional development for early childhood educators.     

Stories of self,stories of practice: enacting a vision of socially just pedagogy for Latino youth

This narrative inquiry examines how one Latina novice teacher articulates and implements a vision of teaching for social justice within the contexts of her teacher education program and her practice as a bilingual resource teacher. Informed by Latino/a critical race (LatCrit) theory, the analysis traces connections between stories of self and practice, focusing on her development of an innovative middle school literacy course for Spanish speakers. This article highlights the ways in which she recruits her experiences as a member of a marginalized group and brings them to bear on practice in the crafting of a critical pedagogy that takes learners’ interests and concerns as central while encouraging social action. Findings are discussed in light of the following themes: critical questioning and resistance; analysis of systems of oppression and positioning; and encouraging social action and practicing democracy. This study has implications for teacher preparation committed to socially just pedagogies for all children, but especially for Latino/a youth.     

Teaching conversation skills to behaviorally disordered children

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of an instructional package designed to teach conversation skills to behaviorally disordered children. A multiple baseline design with a reversal was employed to assess the effectiveness of this package. Six children were taught in two groups of three. The teachers were taught to use the package prior to implementation to insure standardization across both groups. Data were collected in a contrived setting with a peer trained as a conversant. Observation also took place in the school cafeteria to assess generalization of the training to a naturalistic setting. Social validation data were collected from teachers and children to evaluate their impressions of the instructional package. Results indicated that the instructional package was effective in increasing conversational skills above baseline levels in all children and in both settings.     

Temporal cuing of runs in series of reward events reduces interevent anticipation

In Experiment 1, a group of rats were runway trained on each of two reward series for 32 days. The two series consisted of three runs, the first two of which were, respectively, rewarded and nonrewarded; the third run was rewarded in one series but nonrewarded in the other. A 40-min interval separated the two series; the first and second runs within the series were separated by a 10-min interval, whereas the second and third runs were separated by a 30-sec interval. The reward (and nonreward) events and temporal cues of the two series are designated R-NR/R-NN. A second group was similarly trained, with the exception that the 10-min interval separated the second and third runs (RN-R/RN-N). Both groups developed appropriate differential running on the third run of the two series, and the RN-R/RN-N animals ran appropriately (slowly) on the second run of both series. Appropriate Run 2 performance appeared in one half of the R-NR/R-NN animals (depending upon order of series presentation); the remaining half ran faster on Run 2 of the R-NR series than on the same run of the R-NN series, an effect currently termed interevent anticipation. A cue shift phase in which all within-series intervals were 30 sec showed that the temporal intervals were controlling performance before the shift. Experiment 2 showed that interevent anticipation appears when all within-series intervals are either 10 min or 30 sec from the beginning of training, suggesting that the elimination of interevent anticipation in Experiment 1 was due to the differential cuing of runs by the temporal intervals rather than the particular interval duration. The overall findings suggest that the similarity of Run 2 and Run 3 performance termed interevent anticipation may be due to a failure to discriminate the ordinal position of runs within a series.     

Effects of GO FASTER on Morpheme Definition Fluency for High School Students with High‐Incidence Disabilities

Although vocabulary plays an important role in literacy and content instruction, there is a paucity of research identifying effective methods for teaching vocabulary. One promising strategy is morphemic analysis, which involves breaking words into morphemes, the smallest meaningful parts of words, and teaching students the meanings of those parts. The current study used a multiple probe across morphemes experimental design to determine the effects of an intervention package, GO FASTER (G raphic O rganizers; F lashcards A dded up and S elf‐graphed to T rack progress; E rrors R eviewed). Findings showed that with three to four instructional sessions, three high school students with high‐incidence disabilities successfully defined morphemes at a predetermined fluency rate and generalized these definitions to untaught words. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

A Library and a Radio Show: The Story of a Successful Partnership at 10 Years and Counting

Your Health® Radio is a weekly one-hour radio show about consumer health produced by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Family Medicine. It provides practical, health-related news and information to listeners in an easy to understand style. Hosted by a family medicine physician faculty member and co-hosted by other health professionals, it airs on a local radio station. Since 2009, Health Sciences librarians have collaborated on the show, bringing their expertise in information discovery and organization, consumer health, and health literacy to this consumer health endeavor. In the process, the librarians and libraries have also benefitted.     

The Fate of Early Experience Following Developmental Change: Longitudinal Approaches to Individual Adaptation in Childhood

2 strategies were used to investigate the continued impact of early experience and adaptation given subsequent experience and/or developmental change in a poverty sample (N = 190). Groups were defined whose adaptation was similar during the preschool years but consistently different earlier; then these 2 groups were compared in elementary school. In addition, a series of regression analyses was performed in which variance accounted for by near-in or contemporary predictors of adaptation in middle childhood was removed before adding earlier adaptation in subsequent steps. Children showing positive adaptation in the infant/toddler period showed greater rebound in the elementary school years, despite poor functioning in the preschool period. Regression analyses revealed some incremental power of early predictors with intermediate predictors removed. The results were interpreted as supporting Bowlby's thesis that adaptation is always a product of both developmental history and current circumstances. While this research cannot resolve such a complicated issue, it does point to the need for complex formulations to guide research on individual development.     

Living in a 2.2 world: from mapping to strategic capacity building for Australian educational research

The results of Australia’s first national research assessment, excellence for research in Australia, provoked considerable discussion about the state of educational research in Australia. Understanding the nature of this field of research became the focus for empirical research and analysis that was intended to inform strategic planning. This paper provides an overview of the articles in this special issue, bringing together research on Australian educational research and insights from international researchers who research the effects of research assessment in educational research in their own countries. These sources inform a commentary on Australian educational research and suggest an agenda for further action on strategic capacity building for Australian educational research.